10 Times Students Gave Us Hope For The Planet

Green is just what – and who – we are at Colorado State University. Warner College of Natural Resources students have a particular fondness for taking care of our natural resources for future generations. Here are some of the times their adventures for good made us green with envy, um, inspiration:

1. They can talk trash.

Montana Sauve

Montana Sauve

Montana talked trash with park visitors at Grand Teton, Yosemite and Denali National Parks to help the National Park Service keep 100-million or so pounds of park waste out of landfills.

“I believe in sustainable waste practices in every field,” said Sauve. “There is no better place to start than our very own National Parks.”

2. They are the bees’ knees.

Hannah Dresang

Hannah Dresang

Hannah spent five weeks in Tanzania where she interviewed Maasai bee specialists to understand pollinator’s significance within Maasai livelihoods and their perceived environmental benefits. The information she gathered through interviews may aid beekeeping practices and give Maasai information to help care for pollinators to benefit both themselves and their land.

“This experience opened my eyes not only to the importance of properly conducted research, but the significance of culture in environmental practices,” she says. “As my education develops, I hope to apply this accumulated knowledge to encourage involvement of local communities in ecological matters.”

3. They waste not.

Mary Grant

Mary Grant

Mary worked for the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics as a research assistant to help with the Zero Landfill Initiative study currently in place for three national parks: Yosemite, Grand Tetons, and Denali.

“We have been observing visitor waste disposal to record their behaviors, as well as administering surveys to get an understanding of visitor attitudes toward proper waste disposal,” she says. “All of the data we collect will be going to the National Park Service in order for them to make better waste management decisions.”

4. They practically live in SUVs for the research.

Alix Messer

Alix Messer

Alix did research in Tanzania on the effects of cultivation and herding on land use. She’ll be sharing her final research outcome in 2018.

“This experience has really helped me steer toward my goal as a potential researcher and to understand the needs of the people not just in Tanzania, but around the world in developing countries,” she says.

5. They wield primitive tools like a boss.

Kenzie Schmitt

Kenzie Schmitt

Kenzie was a Wilderness Ranger and a member of the Wilderness Trail Crew in the Black Elk Wilderness of Black Hills National Forest. Because the area is a federally designated Wilderness, her crew cleared trails using primitive, non-motorized tools such as crosscut saws. They educated the public on what designated Wilderness is and why it is managed differently than the rest of the forest, and they monitored the land for solitude, water quality, campsite impacts, and noise disturbances. 

6. They educate others. And they like good nature quotes.

Mikaela Oles

Mikaela Oles

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.” – Edward Abbey

Mikaela developed outreach and education strategies for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 6 Fish and Aquatic Conservation. She traveled all over the West to conduct interviews and document through photos and video.

“The experience opened my eyes to how important fish and other aquatic resources are,” she says. “Fisheries benefit us through recreational activities and food source, but are also imperative for healthy ecosystems and habitats.”

7. They have feathered friends.

Rachel Tucci

Rachel Tucci

Rachel interned with the Bald Head Island Conservancy where she helped with a shorebird banding project partnership between North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission and the Audubon Society. The project impacts the world as a whole by allowing us to gain a large amount of information about shorebirds on an individual and population level, which is critical for implementing future conservation projects for these species and their habitat.

“The experiences I gained are impacting my education by allowing me to get hands-on experience and have fun interacting with the natural world I am working to learn about and protect with my future career,” she says.

8. They get warm fuzzies for cold-blooded critters.

Kailey Carlson

Kailey Carlson

Kailey worked in the Holland Lab at Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island. Her team placed tags targeting adult scalloped hammerheads in Kaneohe Bay to provide evidence for unusual behavior. They found that the adult hammerheads were doing repetitive deep-water dives, to depths of 800m, at night. At these depths, temperatures are too cold to permit survival. The accelerometer on the tag package also provided some evidence that feeding behavior might be the motivation for diving to these unusually deep depths, though a lot is still unknown about the motivations for this behavior. 

9. They bioblitz. A lot.

William A. Cotton/CSU Photography

Terutaka (Funa) Funabashi

Funa was a Colorado Natural Heritage Summer Intern and helped with bioblitzes on the Western Slope of Colorado. He also helped with ecological monitoring related to bison reintroduction at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area, north of Fort Collins.

10. Loving the outdoors is a family thing.

Van Wallace

Van Wallace

 

Van worked as a sustainability intern for Facilities Management on CSU’s campus. He helped with the University’s 2017 greenhouse gas footprint report, helped gather data for possible renewable energy purchases, analyzed CSU vehicle emissions, and even labeled drains on campus with “do not dump” stickers.

“It’s satisfying work to be part of the sustainability team,” he says. “Especially here at CSU where a lot of the employees are passionate about sustainability.”

He also found time to hike Colorado’s section of the Continental Divide Trail with his brother Nathan, a sophomore studying mechanical engineering at CSU, and says of the experience, “Never have I so often felt so simultaneously exhausted and gratified.”

11. Bonus. As seriously as they take their work, they sometimes dress like 90s superheroes.

WCNR

Captain Planet.

 

Rocking great green hair. Hanging out in Sherwood Forest. Saving the planet. You know, the usual.